When suffering one either migrates to the poll of despair or resignation; at least I do. We know that despair is not of God but of the Evil One. We know that resignation is the refuge of the fatalists, Stoics, and often the atheist. I don’t want to exist, let alone live, dwell, inhabit, either place. What is the alternative? Continue reading
To be Hoisted Yet Again
Having recently published a blog about the ‘necessity’ (This word seems ill-advised in this context, but nevertheless.) of properly discerning what is truly adiaphora I find myself flummoxed, adrift, even asea. Continue reading
Posted in For Pastors Only, Missouri Megatrends
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Apparatchiks Я Us
I’ve been banging on Concordia Health Plan’s publication Better Health for years. To sum up my take from 2013 (“Better Health Poorer Christianity” 7-29-2013) and from 2009 (“Food for Thought” 11-09-2009), I would subtitle Better Health with :Poorer Theology. Continue reading
Posted in Ablaze, Contemporary Worship, LCMS 2007 Convention, Missouri Megatrends
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Fruit Dragging the Ground
If you don’t know what to say about this 2002 Editorial Cartoon, you don’t understand the bizarre nature of the Pro-Death movement. If you aren’t moved to write a Letter to the Editor in response, you might not be as Pro-Life as you think. Continue reading
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Excuse My French
An “Irish goodbye”, is an expression used today by Americans and Englanders. It comes from the English referring to a “French leave.” The French refer to it as “leave as the English.” Germany has “to make a Polish exit”.[i] This practice seems to be along the lines of American Indian tribes referring to themselves in preeminent terms and “others” with derogatory ones. I’m guess that our “excuse my French” as a way to “apologize” for vulgar or profane language is something else in France. Continue reading
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Devil’s Night
When I had a parish in in the City of Detroit in the late 80s, Devil’s Night was a feared Halloween Eve tradition. Pranks, vandalism, and crimes were up as youth ran wild. That’s how it was billed and the news story reported it. We lived in the city, and frankly we didn’t see this, but the concept is catching on thanks again to our friend psychology. Continue reading
Posted in Families, For Anyone who dares
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Just a Tool, Two
In my never ending quest, perhaps Quixotic, to expose the seedy underbelly of all things techie, I offer “Just a Tool, Two” or “2.0” for you Big Tech enthusiasts.
The scene in the 1980’s movie is this: the hero has tracked the irascible killer to a remote area in Los Angeles where he is burying his final victim whom he thinks dead but is not. The place is too remote for a scream for help to be effective.
This scene is not believable and would be not written, directed, acted, or sold today. The ubiquity of the smartphone, or even just a flip phone, means no one would write this scene or even think it. Think how far back not just in writing but in thinking the story would be different. Continue reading
Posted in Big Tech Big Lie or Promise?
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Give Me the spirit of heaviness rather than disease of depression
Every year at this season, the “news” goes between how more depressing this time of year is to how it’s really a myth that this time of year is more depressing than others. I think what is most certainly depressing is that when everyone, including Christians, hear depression we think therapy or more likely medicine, we don’t think Word and Sacrament let alone the pastoral office. Continue reading
Forensic Justification is Objective Justification
The single greatest threat to Confessional Lutheranism is the denial of Objective Justification (OJ). It is a denial of the Gospel. That’s what Dean Saleska said in a 1981 meeting of the faculty of Concordia Theological Seminary at Fort Wayne. He said it to Dr. Preus, president of CTS, over against the question of disciplining Dr. Walter A. Maier II’s denial of Objective Justification. (I overheard this heated discussion while on security duty on the campus late one night.) While much has been and can be written on this subject, below is another effort at defending the concept of OJ. It’s not the whole story of justification. You can see this blog (https://www.pastorharris.com/
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Sanctity of Life Sunday
Before I retired, I moved the celebration of The Holy Innocents to Sanctity of Life Sunday. If you look at the history of the celebration on December 28, it was originally celebrated after St. Stephen and St. John, to tamp down the over celebrating that accompanied Christmas. As much as I am loath to tinker with the historic Church Year, I think moving it from December 28 to around January 22 is not only apropos but called for. Our society has devolved, deturpated, decayed, to the point where it is open-season on the most helpless. Continue reading
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